Reviews tagging 'Death'

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon

28 reviews

ehmannky's review against another edition

3.75

This was an interesting deep dive into how Ancient Romans conceptualized the act of murder, what was and what wasn't a murder, how the state should or could be involved, who counted as even being a person able to be murdered. I think that sometimes the flippant nature (never my favorite thing in true crime or history books) was a bit much, but I appreciated that the asides and jokes were at the expense of the men in power and that Southon spends a lot of time trying to humanize the people who died and were ignored by those in power in Ancient Rome. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Torture, and Death of parent

crownoflaurel's review against another edition

challenging funny informative medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Sexual violence, and Suicide

mynameisinigomontoya's review against another edition

dark funny informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, and Slavery

subatomiclaura's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

4.0

Hard to read cause Roman names are not easy.  Very informative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, and Murder

danimacuk's review against another edition

dark funny informative slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Religious bigotry

queenyasfat's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

another_dahlia's review against another edition

dark funny informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Domestic abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism

gringolet's review against another edition

dark funny informative fast-paced

4.5

An incredibly fascinating, well researched and thoughtful book; I would like to give it five stars but for the fact that, while I overall enjoyed the casual and witty tone, the narration sometimes went overboard to the detriment of the book. It felt at times like the book was apologizing for being itself, and felt the need to say "this information is boring, this topic is dull, here have a pop culture reference which will painfully age this otherwise excellent book". I found the information interesting, and I think a lot of people do, as evidenced by the success of the book, and I do wish it would have more faith in it's readers. That being said, I still wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject, especially for how it dealt with slavery in ancient Rome. I can easily see (and in fact, have read) lesser books which are unwilling or unable to fully acknowledge the unbearable and overwhelming ugliness of it, to the extent of revisionism and apologetics. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, Colonisation, and War

allisonmeyette's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

tlholmes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death